One Step Behind
by Rosewhisker41622
Summary: S6E10. Part of “Night To Remember” sequence. JT and Toby have been together for years, but the new girl, Mia, makes Toby feel slightly jealous. What happens when Lakehurst declares war on Degrassi? Story is better than summary. Side note : JT will NEVER die in this series.


**One Step Behind**

NORMAL POV

It was another day at Degrassi, and Toby was walking to school with Danny and Derek. He would normally walk with JT as well, who was his boyfriend, but he had already been at school. Probably because of Mia, who he had become good friends with. Was Toby jealous of their friendship? Yes. Would he admit it? No.

"So I was thinking of changing my name, I was thinking of LLCoolD, stands for Ladies Love Cool Danny." Danny said with a smirk on his face. Oh boy, hope he was joking.

"Pft, if anyone deserves that name, it's me." Derek said as he playfully shoved Danny. Toby rolled his eyes at them both, although this was kind of amusing.

"Based on what, your fantasy life?" Toby said, earning laughs from both Derek and Danny. Their carefree time was short lived as they ran into a bunch of Lakehurst students, one of which was Mia's ex.

"Oh look who it is, the losers from Degrassi." A blonde one, which Toby thought was named Johnny, said as he pushed Toby against the wall.

"Listen up dorks, Lakehurst has declared war on your school." Mia's ex, who's name was Nic or something, said as he glared at the three of them.

"Why?" Derek asked, confused. And what rock has he been living under?

"Just ask your friend the mascot, JT Yorke." At the mention of JT, Toby was ready to fight all of these people. They better not try to hurt him, or even threaten him.

"Know his name?" Toby glared at Nic, earning a slight shove from Johnny.

"Friend of yours?" Johnny asked. More like boyfriend, but that wasn't important at the moment.

"You tell JT we're gonna stomp his ass." Nic said, and Johnny pushed Toby again, more forcefully this time. Looks like there was about to be a fight.

Well, maybe not, as some guy had saw what was going on and shouted at them, and that was enough to make Nic and his group leave.

...

JT and Mia sat at a table in the cafeteria, hanging out, but just as friends. Mia liked him at first, but he told her that he was dating Toby, so they just became good friends.

At the moment they were having a tickle fight, and Toby saw this as he walked up with Derek and Danny. JT had that smile on his face, that same adorable smile that was always on his face every time he saw Toby. This made Toby's jealously even worse.

"Hope you're enjoying that burrito JT, it'll be your last." JT kept the smile on his face as he watched Toby sit across from him, until he realized what the last part was. What did he mean?

"What, are they gonna take these bad boys off the menu?" JT joked as he stopped tickling Mia. He had assumed that's what he meant.

"No, but Lakehurst is gonna take you off the menu. The menu of life." Mia and JT both looked at him in confusion. That's not something you wanna hear from your boyfriend first thing in the morning.

"We kind of got beat up this morning by Nic and his Lakehurst crew." Danny said, confirming what Toby meant.

"Nic's declared war on Degrassi." Derek added.

"Uh, specifically on you." Toby said, and this made JT even more confused.

"Why? Why me? Was it because of that stupid basketball brawl? That was nothing." He couldn't think of a single reason why. A lot of people had fought then, why would it specifically be him?

"It's not because of that, it's because you're dating Mia." Derek said, and Toby punched him in the arm, hard. Derek didn't know Toby and JT were together. Yeah, he defiantly lived under a rock. JT fought the urge to laugh at that, but he didn't understand why Derek thought he was dating Mia.

"Ow! Dude, what did you do that for?" Derek yelled as he rubbed his arm.

"He's not dating Mia, he's dating me! Has been for more than four years! But maybe the Lakehurst people think that since he acts like he's dating her!" Toby said, making his jealously sort of obvious, but he didn't care. JT and Mia were both shocked at that. Was Toby actually jealous of Mia?

"That physco thinks I'm dating Mia? Wait, he was your ex?" JT didn't have time to deal with Toby's jealously right now, there was no need in it. He had to deal with this potential war.

"Oh, now that makes since! This is about you Mia, you're gonna get us all killed!" Derek and Danny shut their mouths, worried about their safety but also finding Toby being jealous amusing. Mia felt like she started something, and JT was annoyed.

"Oh yeah Toby, way to make her feel good." JT sounded completely annoyed and serious. He had nothing to be jealous about, JT thought they trusted each other. He never even did anything with Mia! Did Toby care? No.

"Oh of course, stand up for HER. And I'm sorry, I just have this erotic inversion to being murdered." Toby replied, way more annoyed than anyone here. So Mia can come here, steal his boyfriend, and start a war? This made Mia feel worse, she hoped she didn't ruin their relationship or start the war between the two schools.

"Lakehurst is not going to hurt anybody. I'm going to handle it." JT didn't feel like arguing with Toby about Mia in front of anyone, so he would deal with the jealously part later. For now, this war would have to be stopped before it could get started.

"Oh yeah, and what are you gonna do? Tickle them to death?" JT sighed in frustration, this jealousy was really unnecessary. He didn't want anyone but Toby, and he thought Toby knew that. Derek and Danny couldn't hold in their laughter anymore and started dying laughing. Mia and JT both looked at Toby, and then each other. Toby got up and left, and JT slammed his fist down on the table.

He didn't understand what he did wrong in both matters.

...

JT walked into the Lakehurst halls, hoping nothing bad would happen. He ran into Nic and his crew, and there was a lot of them.

"You got a lot of nerve showing up at our school." Nic said as he glared at JT, the person he hated most.

"Whatever. Is this stupid war because you think I'm dating your ex? I'm not, I'm dating someone else." JT said, hoping this would end it.

"Pft, I don't care about Mia. She's just a dumb slut." Nic said, meaning every word. This made JT mad, because Mia was still his friend, and he almost punched him, but stopped himself because he was outnumbered.

"Easy mascot boy." Nic taunted.

"You want a war? Meet me tomorrow in the tunnel at 5." JT didn't know what this was about, but he was ready to fight if it ended this.

"Mind if I bring my friends?" Nic said, referring to his pathetic group.

"No. Because I'll bring mine." JT had really hoped Toby would come and help him end this. Then he would settle the jealously thing. One thing at a time.

"Ohh, what, the chess club? I'm scared." Nic said in a fake scared voice, causing JT to roll his eyes.

And with that, they pushed past JT and walked off.

...

The next day was the day of the fight. Danny and Derek stood in the hallway, passing around fliers for it.

"Rumble today at 5, don't miss out on the Lakehurst ass-kicking action." Derek said as he held fliers around. JT saw this and ran up to stop this stupidity.

"What are you guys, crazy? Don't advertise it." JT said in annoyance as he took the fliers away.

"You said we had to from a posse." Danny defended. Before JT could argue back, Derek spoke up.

"Yeah, I got a couple guys on the basketball team. They'll probably back us up." Derek said, and that seemed to calm JT down.

"Hey, I heard you guys were organizing some battle against Lakehurst." Jimmy said as he rolled up with Spinner and Toby.

"Yeah, you in?" JT said. Kind of stupid, Jimmy was in a wheelchair.

"Sure, I'll roll over their feet with my chair," Jimmy said sarcastically, "No, I'm not in."

"Yeah, me neither cause this is a seriously bad idea." Spinner added. JT sighed, how else would this end?

"Look, violence is a vicious cycle. You guys are going to make it go from bad to worse." Jimmy said, and he was right, but Danny and Derek didn't see this.

"Whatever, go pick some flowers, we're gonna kick some ass." Danny said as him and Derek walked away. JT was starting to have second thoughts about this. Jimmy knew violence first hand. Jimmy shrugged and him and Spinner walked off, but Toby walked closer to JT.

"This isn't like you JT. I thought you'd be smarter than this." Toby said, and this made JT go back to being annoyed again. For one, he was probably backing down because of Mia and his jealously, if that made any since. For second, no matter what, Toby should have his back. That's what he promised, that he'd be there no matter what.

"And I thought you'd offer to join me." JT said back, and Toby sighed.

"I'm not gonna fight Lakehurst. You're being an idiot." Toby wasn't doing this because of his jealously of Mia, he was doing this because this was in fact an idiotic thing to do.

"And you're being a coward! Some boyfriend." JT said as he started to walk off, he would do this with or without Toby. But Toby wasn't done talking.

"Yeah well, at least I'm not over here flirting with other people!" This made JT turn around and walk back. Now he was really mad.

"I'm not flirting with her, we're just friends and you know that! Is this why you don't want to fight? To get back at me because you think there's something between me and her? There's not, I wouldn't do that to you!" JT said, and Toby rolled his eyes.

"No, I don't want to fight because this is stupid! You know what, go on and be an idiot and fight! You might as well do it, for your little girlfriends sake." Toby was the one to walk off this time, and this made JT realize he might be making a mistake. It hurt him that Toby was this upset over Mia. Then, he realized he didn't even tell Toby that this war wasn't even about her.

"Tobes!" JT called out, hoping he'd turn around. But he didn't, he just kept walking away. I guess this would wait til after the fight.

...

JT and the other kids from Degrassi stood outside the tunnel, waiting for the Lakehurst kids to show up. Mia had followed them there, hoping to stop this stupid rumble.

"Mia? What are you doing here?" JT asked as Mia walked up to him with the advertisement from earlier. JT was in a sour mood over the argument with Toby, and he didn't feel like arguing with Mia.

"Not only is this really stupid, it's incredibly immature!" Mia said, and JT decided to pull her to the side.

"No, it's not. I'm being a man here, this is how men handle things." JT said, running out of excuses.

"There's a reason I broke up with Nic, JT. If you do this, it makes you no different from him. And I also know Toby doesn't approve of this, so think about how he would feel if you resorted to violence. And the fact he's jealous of me isn't helping. Don't fight, go find him and apologize. Don't lose him." Mia said, and this made JT realize he had just made a huge mistake. JT sighed and made a decision.

"Okay. Everybody, let's go home." JT said as he started to walk off. This war was not more important than Toby.

Meanwhile, Toby had decided that losing his relationship wasn't worth it, so he decided to go to the tunnel to talk JT out of it, but if it didn't work, then he would stand by him and fight. Unfortunately, since JT had decided to not fight for the same reason, which was the sake of his relationship, the Lakehurst kids showed up at Degrassi and beat up Toby, breaking his arm and putting him in a neck cast.

He had to go to the hospital to get the cast, which didn't take too long. Toby's parents called JT and told him what happened, and he felt horrible. He defiantly had to apologize the next time he saw Toby.

...

The next day, Toby was walking down the hallway with the help of Manny and Emma, and Manny was ready to give JT a piece of her mind. But of course, Toby had already forgiven JT. Like he said before, he always would. And by then he realized his jealously was not needed, as he knew JT loved him and only him. So he told Manny not to worry about it.

"How could they do this to you?" Emma said, and she didn't understand why this happened. This whole thing was stupid.

"If there's anything you need let us know, okay Toby Tobes?" Manny said, using a pet name as she always got mushy with one of her friends if they were injured.

"I think you girls have done enough. Thanks." Toby said as Manny kissed his cheek in a friendly way and Emma handed him his bag. Toby started to walk off, but JT was there as if he came out of no where. Always one step behind.

"Hey, Tobes, here." JT said as he took Toby's bag and carried it for him, he would anyway even if he didn't feel like it was his fault. Now it was time to apologize.

"Look, I'm so sorry, baby." And you could tell how sorry he was just by the sound of his voice. Toby wished he could kiss him on the cheek or something, but he couldn't as he was stuck in the neck brace.

"It's okay JT." Toby said, and JT couldn't believe that Toby had forgiven him this easily. I mean, he had unintentionally made Toby jealous of Mia and unintentionally got him beat up, but it was pretty bad.

"No it's not." JT said, and he still had that sorrowful voice.

"Well, look on the bright side. Were still together, right? I love you, and I'm sorry I got jealous over Mia." JT shook his head at this, Toby shouldn't be the one apologizing.

"No, I'm sorry I made you jealous, and got you beat up. I didn't mean too!" JT said, wishing he could do something.

"It's okay, baby. Maybe it's over, maybe beating someone up was all they wanted." Toby said, and he hoped he was right.

"Well, maybe. But you know, I don't care. They're going to pay for what they did to you!" JT said, and he was prepared to kill. He'd do anything for Toby.

"Look, violence for violence only leads to the deepening of the darkness in the deepest...dark...wait, that didn't come out right." Toby tried to say, and JT shook his head as he slightly smiled.

"Look, promise me you'll let this go." Toby asked, but JT didn't look so convinced. He didn't want too, but if Toby wanted him too...

"Promise me, JT." Toby said in a serious voice. JT sighed, he would do it if Toby wanted it.

"Okay, I promise." Toby smiled at him, and JT gently leaned in to kiss him. It didn't hurt or anything, that was until JT forgot about the neck brace and placed a hand on Toby's shoulder. He remembered and quickly retracted it.

"Oops, sorry." They both started laughing and then smiled at each other.

"I love you, Tobes. And I really am sorry. I'll stop hanging out with Mia if you want." JT suggested, anything he wanted he would do.

"Stop apologizing already, I forgive you, idiot. And no, you have a right to hang out with whoever you want, I was just being paranoid. I know you love me and only me. Now can you kiss me again?" JT smiled wider and leaned in to kiss him again, being careful not to cause pain. They broke the kiss after a few seconds because they had to go to class.

"Come on, lets go. Wanna come over after school?" Toby asked, and JT nodded in response.

"Love to." JT said as he carefully placed an arm around Toby's lower back and walked to class with him.

The Mia situation was solved, and hopefully the Lakehurst one was solved as well. Regardless, nothing was going to ever separate them.


End file.
